Syabu: Indonesian escapes gallows but gets 17 years, 10 lashes
Published on: Friday, November 18, 2016
Tawau: A 27-year-old Indonesian man sentenced to death for trafficking 1,155.96gm of syabu escaped the gallows and was instead ordered to serve 17 years behind bars and get 10 lashes of the cane on a lesser charge of having the drugs.Court of Appeal Justices Datuk David Wong Dak Wah, Dato Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Datuk Zamani A. Rahim unanimously allowed Romi Ali's appeal against his conviction and death sentence.The court held, among others, that the prosecution had failed to prove their case beyond reasonable doubt till the defence stage and that there was a serious and incorrect finding on the act of trafficking by the trial judge, therefore making it unsafe to convict Romi for trafficking.
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"Appeal is therefore allowed against the finding of the trial judge on trafficking. We therefore reduce the charge to one of possession under Section 12 of the Dangerous Drugs Act (DDA) to be read with Section 39A2 of the same Act which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years," held Wong, on behalf of the justices.The court sentenced Romi to 17 years' jail from the date of his arrest and ordered he be given 10 strokes of the cane.Romi's mother who was present in court, hugged her son as well as counsel Ram Singh, thanking him after the proceedings.Romi was on Nov 23, 2015 convicted of committing the offence at about 6.40am on March 4, 2013 at the banks of Sungai Pasir Putih, Tanjung Batu Logpond, here.
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He was jointly charged with another accomplice one Rosliana Kitley under Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act.Earlier, Ram who represented Romi together with counsel Kamarudin Mohamad Chinki submitted, among others, that the trial judge had misdirected herself on the presumption under Section 37(d) of the DDA and direct trafficking under Section 2 of the said Act.
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